We've been told that the past year-plus of Joaquin Phoenix's bizarre, bearded behavior was not for real, exactly. It was all for a movie — a faux-documentary, maybe? — filmed by Casey Affleck. Now here's the trailer for that film.

Does that help to clear things up a bit? No? It's a meta-performance, you see, and you, the lucky audience, have been part of the act all along! You might even say that our gaze has had a supporting role. It's terribly cerebral. Terribly, terribly cerebral. Terribly so.